Keighan
Well-Known Member
So this will be just a basic outline of workout plans and what I have learned from experience and ACE Personal training course.
We will start with some definition, weather at the gym or designing a program you will hear and use two words more than any other. Sets and reps. What are these? Well reps are the amount of times you would complete a single exercise/motion in a set. Now a set is just that, how many times you complete said motion in consecutive movements. Ex: 4 sets of 10 reps on bench press.
Ok now that we have that in order we can start on some other things. When you put an opposing force that exceeds what your muscles are accustomed to the cells actually send a message out to other muscle sells asking for help, once they receive that message they come to the rescue this is what gives you the ability to push the weight. Now after repeated muscle cell recruitment the proteins and cell walls expand and swell(that swell you get after a hard SET) this is the extra blood being pushed to the cells for expansion to complete the motion. They will soon recover and return to an un-swelled state. With continued swelling and and cell recruitment you quickly build a sort of "tolerance" to that weight, and that's when you will add more weight to your sets. This happens because through the repeated process of cell recruitment your brain has sent the message that you will soon need those extra cells and they need to stay put(for the time being if your not diligent in your workout you will quickly lose those cells within days.). Also I will say you need at least 48 hour of rest for the specific muscle targeted for healing purposes, without the rest you will not see or feel much improvement and in time will damage tissue.
Now with that explained well move on.When designing a program the first thing you need to ask is what your looking to accomplish. Do you want to get stronger, or do you want to look bigger, lose weight or just be healthy? Generally speaking more weight and less reps means more strength built, less weight more reps is more stamina and "muscle appearance". Once you have decided that it's time to move on Ive always tried to design my program in the vision of how I want to transition through the process. You always want to begin with stretching I don't care what anyone tells you its absolutely necessary, it prevents injury and paves the way to more gains from your program. You need the blood pumping through that tissue nothing runs cold, it improves range of motion which creates better range of motion in exercises which means more targeted and untargeted muscles get hit. There's many ways to design your week and what days you hit what muscle I personally don't believe in a day off if you have the extra time 7 days a week for an hour of your day, and you'll get where you want to be. I like to think in motions pulling exercises on one day pushing on the next, corresponding muscles (chest,tris) legs and cardio to stay lean. I would generally say 4 different exercises of a specific muscle is significant but do what you can see if you have the time and equipment for 8 exercises then start low and work your way up to 8 or 10 different exercises. You do want to start out with lower sets and less exercises if your just starting out I would say no more than 4, you can burn your muscles out and you'll know when you do, it'll hurt and you'll be miserable, so be gradual! This is how that would look in general.
Monday- chest and tri's shoulders
These three muscles are key to how you look and are involved in a very large range of motions, that's why they have there own day. Your chest is obvious it is utilized in ALL pushing motions. And tri's pushing as well with corresponding chest utilization. Believe it or not your triceps are actually 3/4 of what people see when they think of "bicep" if you want big arms go for your tri's.
So here is an example of a beginner, moderately healthy looking to gain muscle pretty fit already. He will first calculate is one rep max this is the most weight you can successfully use threw a given exercise ONE time. After that he will calculate 75-80% of his one rep max and that will be his rep weight(since he is trying to gain strength keep reps low weight high).
Generally speaking one rep guidelines for end result.
Strength: 75-80%
Strength/muscle hypertrophy(growth):65-75%
Stamina:45-65%
So his Monday will be:
Chest exercise X 75% X 4 sets X 6 reps : with for 4 chest exercises followed by 4 tricep exercises at the same standards, then shoulders. I will say its smart to switch muscles after a single exercise is complete or you'll quickly get tired.
Tuesday: follow the same guidelines but you will do opposing motion muscles pulling. This will include biceps, traps, back, forearms.
We'd: repeated with legs and abs.
Now you can obviously follow those weight standards for legs but when it comes to abs your going to want to shoot for reps and alot of different exercises. You can add weight with a medicine ball etc but I find more reps, exercises, and sets gives better results for abs.
Thursday: repeat chest day it has had plenty of time to heal.
Friday: pulling day again
Sat: legs and abs
Sunday: I would usually do a cardio day, they're great to have, burns more calories, keeps you on top of your game and feeling good. So really an hour of any cardio decent speed, basketball game, jogging, anything.
I'm going to keep adding to this post when I get time, going over some advanced lifting techniques, tricks I've learned, taking questions. Like I said I'm no expert but I have picked up some things along the way and would like to help anyone I can!
We will start with some definition, weather at the gym or designing a program you will hear and use two words more than any other. Sets and reps. What are these? Well reps are the amount of times you would complete a single exercise/motion in a set. Now a set is just that, how many times you complete said motion in consecutive movements. Ex: 4 sets of 10 reps on bench press.
Ok now that we have that in order we can start on some other things. When you put an opposing force that exceeds what your muscles are accustomed to the cells actually send a message out to other muscle sells asking for help, once they receive that message they come to the rescue this is what gives you the ability to push the weight. Now after repeated muscle cell recruitment the proteins and cell walls expand and swell(that swell you get after a hard SET) this is the extra blood being pushed to the cells for expansion to complete the motion. They will soon recover and return to an un-swelled state. With continued swelling and and cell recruitment you quickly build a sort of "tolerance" to that weight, and that's when you will add more weight to your sets. This happens because through the repeated process of cell recruitment your brain has sent the message that you will soon need those extra cells and they need to stay put(for the time being if your not diligent in your workout you will quickly lose those cells within days.). Also I will say you need at least 48 hour of rest for the specific muscle targeted for healing purposes, without the rest you will not see or feel much improvement and in time will damage tissue.
Now with that explained well move on.When designing a program the first thing you need to ask is what your looking to accomplish. Do you want to get stronger, or do you want to look bigger, lose weight or just be healthy? Generally speaking more weight and less reps means more strength built, less weight more reps is more stamina and "muscle appearance". Once you have decided that it's time to move on Ive always tried to design my program in the vision of how I want to transition through the process. You always want to begin with stretching I don't care what anyone tells you its absolutely necessary, it prevents injury and paves the way to more gains from your program. You need the blood pumping through that tissue nothing runs cold, it improves range of motion which creates better range of motion in exercises which means more targeted and untargeted muscles get hit. There's many ways to design your week and what days you hit what muscle I personally don't believe in a day off if you have the extra time 7 days a week for an hour of your day, and you'll get where you want to be. I like to think in motions pulling exercises on one day pushing on the next, corresponding muscles (chest,tris) legs and cardio to stay lean. I would generally say 4 different exercises of a specific muscle is significant but do what you can see if you have the time and equipment for 8 exercises then start low and work your way up to 8 or 10 different exercises. You do want to start out with lower sets and less exercises if your just starting out I would say no more than 4, you can burn your muscles out and you'll know when you do, it'll hurt and you'll be miserable, so be gradual! This is how that would look in general.
Monday- chest and tri's shoulders
These three muscles are key to how you look and are involved in a very large range of motions, that's why they have there own day. Your chest is obvious it is utilized in ALL pushing motions. And tri's pushing as well with corresponding chest utilization. Believe it or not your triceps are actually 3/4 of what people see when they think of "bicep" if you want big arms go for your tri's.
So here is an example of a beginner, moderately healthy looking to gain muscle pretty fit already. He will first calculate is one rep max this is the most weight you can successfully use threw a given exercise ONE time. After that he will calculate 75-80% of his one rep max and that will be his rep weight(since he is trying to gain strength keep reps low weight high).
Generally speaking one rep guidelines for end result.
Strength: 75-80%
Strength/muscle hypertrophy(growth):65-75%
Stamina:45-65%
So his Monday will be:
Chest exercise X 75% X 4 sets X 6 reps : with for 4 chest exercises followed by 4 tricep exercises at the same standards, then shoulders. I will say its smart to switch muscles after a single exercise is complete or you'll quickly get tired.
Tuesday: follow the same guidelines but you will do opposing motion muscles pulling. This will include biceps, traps, back, forearms.
We'd: repeated with legs and abs.
Now you can obviously follow those weight standards for legs but when it comes to abs your going to want to shoot for reps and alot of different exercises. You can add weight with a medicine ball etc but I find more reps, exercises, and sets gives better results for abs.
Thursday: repeat chest day it has had plenty of time to heal.
Friday: pulling day again
Sat: legs and abs
Sunday: I would usually do a cardio day, they're great to have, burns more calories, keeps you on top of your game and feeling good. So really an hour of any cardio decent speed, basketball game, jogging, anything.
I'm going to keep adding to this post when I get time, going over some advanced lifting techniques, tricks I've learned, taking questions. Like I said I'm no expert but I have picked up some things along the way and would like to help anyone I can!
